September Report

September 9th :Chiltern Vista-Golden Cross PH at Saunderton via Whipsnade

The ride out started well, 12 souls had turned up on time, the Haddenham garden centre was welcoming with excellent coffee and the banter and the weather was warming up nicely…..

James had devised an excellent route and off we trundled into the beautiful countryside.

Our first stop was to look at the view over the Dunstable downs, we managed to pack quite a number of bikes into a small space which turned out to be littered with drug (hippy crack) leftovers, the view was lovely….

 

 

We then set off along the ridge and passed a beautiful, tarmacked and large car park for the Chilterns Gateway visitor centre, some “wag” (who shall remain nameless…..) suggested, that our ride leader prefers the dodgy areas….

The tail end charlie, was happily annoying everyone by blasting his horn to alert anyone who had been “dropped off” that the last man was there!

A stop for a welcome leg stretch at the Ashridge National Trust Car park and monument was a spectacular venue and well worth a visit in its own right.

We then made our way through some excellent roads to our lunch venue, where we were made very welcome and were able to socially distance in the superb garden after an excellent mornings riding.

 

Our thanks to James for the excellent route and organisation, and to those who contributed to our Air Ambulance charity a total of £24, well done all!

A Cotswold Canter to The AV8 Cafe – Geoff Clough

It should have been six, but five brave souls set out from Peartree Services on a Cotswold Canter. The weather forecast was somewhat off-putting, but the ride wasn’t damp until we were within a few miles of Broadway.

The roads were thankfully free of slow traffic most of the way.

After a short comfort break in Broadway, we set off briskly up Fish Hill with its tight bends. Sadly, the road was damp by this stage, so we were unable to exceed the advisory speeds by very much.

 

Once at the top, we were made steady progress across to Stow-on-the-Wold. The Fosse Way south to Cirencester was pleasant and without significant slow traffic. The back route around Cirencester was a great improvement on the ring road.

The AV8 café looked great but has been shut since the start of the Covid Lockdown. The last two café employees were running an outside catering unit on site with great Bacon Baps amongst items from the new limited menu.

Our sixth member met us at the AV8 after a delayed start.

We all enjoyed the route, but it would have been even better on a dry day.